Don Juan , Byron's best poem, is a sensational radical satire. It uses the legend of Don Juan to expose the male fantasies behind Romanticism and nineteenth-century public culture. Critics feared that the poem was a 'manual for vice' and would corrupt society. Should England's best selling author have been censored? This book looks at how Europe's most famous literary celebrity shows his dark side in Don Juan , a canonical long poem and a pop culture masterpiece.

CHARLES DONELAN is an administrator in the Columbian University Senate. He has taught at Tufts University, and Bard College and has held a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at UCLA.

Introduction: Romanticism and Vice in an Age of Reaction Learning to Say Juan The Feminization of Male Fantasy: Reimagining Narrative Pleasure in Cantos II and III The Fantasy of Superfluous Heads: From The Harem to the Hydra Mortal Fantasies: The Politics of Skepticism Marriage, Mobility, and the Disavowal of Closure Don Juan as a Defense of Liberty Notes Index